whales sported in the waters; huge sea-birds hung in circles high in the air; yet below us, and with our glasses, we could see, on the rocks at the foot of the crags, seals and some other animals that were strange to us. But follow the line of beetling crags and mountain peaks where you would, the northern side presented a solid blank wall of awful rocks, in many places the summit overhanging and the shore well under in the mighty shadow. Nothing that any of us had ever seen in nature before was so impressive, so awful. We started on our return, after a couple of hours of the awe-inspiring sight beyond the great ring, and for full two hours not a man spoke.
"'Father Burrows,' said I, 'what do you think that is back there?'
"'No man knows, my son, and it will devolve on you and me to name it; but we won't unless we get to it and can take back proofs.'
"'Do you think we could get down the other side? '
"'No, I don't think so, and we seem to have struck it in the lowest spot in sight. I'd give ten years of my life if the "Duncan McDonald" was over there in that duck pond.'
"'Captain,' said Eli Jeffries, the second mate, 'do you know what I've been thinkin'? I believe that 'ere water we seen is an open passage from the Behring side of the frozen ocean over agin' some of them 'ere Roosian straits. If we could get round to the end of it, we'd sail right through the great North-west Passage.'
"'You don't think there is land over there somewhere?'
"'Nope.'
"'Didn't take notice that the face of your "passage" was granite or quartz rocks, hey? Didn't notice all them animals and birds, hey?'
"'Look out!' yelled the man ahead with the dog-sledge.
"A strange, whirring noise was heard in the foggy light, that sounded over our heads. We all dropped to the ground, and the noise increased, until a big flock of huge birds passed over us in rapid flight north. There must have been thousands of them. Captain Burrows brought his shot-gun to his shoulder and fired. There were some wild screams in the air, and a bird came down to the ice with a loud thud. It looked very large a hundred feet away, but sight is very deceiving in this white country in the semi-darkness. We found it a species of duck, rather large and with gorgeous plumage.
"'Goin' north, to Eli's "passage" to lay her eggs on the ice,' said the captain, half sarcastically.
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"It looked very near, … and we could distinguish polar bears on the ice-crags."
